A few technical difficulties on our side but I think (fingers crossed) that we’re good to go!
I have never done one of these liveblog things before, so prepare for a dumpster fire folks…
2 HOURS! Settle in for the long haul!
Let the games begin!
That “show us what you got” face in the sky definitely had Rick and Morty vibes
The rest of this trailer has decidedly not had Rick & Morty vibes…
Is it just me or did Rotwood look like Turnip Boys Commits Tax Evasion with ultraviolence?
Tactical Breach Wizards looks like Door Kickers, but is turn-based and has lots of magic!
Oooh, reading and video games, my two favourite things!
More eerie sci-fi vibes, the theme of this year’s Geoff-Fest.
The Invincible looks right up my street. Abandoned sci-fi outpost story based on the novel by Stanisław Lem? Genuinely might be the most exciting concept I’ve seen so far this Keigh3.
Lots of words like Astrogator, Antimatter, and others sci-fi things that simultaneously mean nothing and make total sense.
Is the robot nice or evil? I need to know
Oh, nevermind. They’ve clarified that the robot is just confused. Poor robot : (
To break the loop or not break the loop? Truly the only question in gaming right now.
This other robot is absolutely evil, no questions needed about that violent disintegration ray!
Oh yep, that robot was a baddie alright. The Invincible looks so good though!
With all these close-ups surely this is heading to a reveal of a known IP…?
Endless Dungeon offers more sci-fi, but much less eerie! It’s a chaotic roguelite tactical action game from Sega.
F1 Manager 2022 looks like it’ll make people with a niche intersection of interests very happy.
Chivalry 2 has hit Steam, and brings crossplay between all platforms!
F1 Manager is out on August 25th, for the enjoyment of all you lovely gearheads who are also spreadsheet nerds! (Best wishes from a fellow spreadsheet nerd.)
I tried Chivalry 2 once last year and got absolutely demolished for about an hour. I haven’t gone back since.
I’m not sure if it was me being garbage, or everyone else just being impressively good. Also worth noting that I got shouted at a lot. Like, a lot. Just an endless torrent of swear words, so I have no desire to go back. It’s a shame, too, because this trailer for the new update looks like good fun.
This obviously Hitman-inspired stealth game has very Deathloop vibes, too. Very my jam… Deceive Inc., it’s called.
Deceive Inc seems to borrow the competitive, zany multiplayer action of Deathloop, but without all of the story beats and with more players. The trailers showed a few secret agents running around and competing to complete the same objectives while tossing endless gadgets around. Shenanigans ensue, of course. Coming early 2023!
Ah, Flintlock: The Siege of Dawn! I just covered this for the Xbox + Bethesda showcase earlier this evening. I’ll be honest, my main take-away from this trailer is that the companion critters are adorable.
I absolutely need to know more about those little creatures. THOSE EARS! CUTENESS OVERLOAD!
I get the feeling this one’s going to be like Monster Hunter games for me. A huge world to explore and I just want to hang out at camp with the poogies and the Palicos.
The Flintlock creatures are definitely luring us in with the cuteness, I bet they are SAVAGE.
INKY!
Although if there’s one thing guaranteed to drag me away from the cuteness for a second, it’s the mention of ELDER GODS.
Yay, more sci-fi! And… yet more sci-fi.
They have indeed confirmed a bunch of other games we can look forward to seeing over the next hour+, and there was a lot of sci-fi on offer.
After a short advert, we’re onto one of those sci-fi games, The Alter. Apparently, it’ll give you a “good” existential crisis??
I mean, I’m usually having an existential crisis anyway, if this game can make it a good one then I’m all in.
The Alter is giving me big Prey vibes, which is incredibly promising. It’s also putting me in mind of the movie Moon which, again, is a very good indicator from my point of view.
I’ve already had plenty of existential crises as well, Rebecca, and I’m only 21… I’m sure there are probably plenty more to come. Not sure if I’ve ever had a good one either.
Stop rubbing your youth in my face Hayden…
Man, The Alter looks so good, but that threat, er promise of “an existential crisis” is still making me nervous.
It’s ‘classic’ sci-fi, just to differentiate a bit from all the other space goodness at this year’s Geoff Fest.
The host is having a clone-themed existential crisis after the trailer!
Outriders: Worldslayer gets a new trailer next, which is sci-fi with more neon and less existential crises.
Potion Craft leaves early access in Autumn, which AliceB is undoubtedly excited over!
I love Animal Royale! Season 4 coming on June 28th! If you haven’t played, it’s lots of adorable 2D animals in a battle royale, armed with a bunch of shooty guns. It’s cute chaos and well worth a try.
Arma 4 is up next! One of the big anticipated highlights of the evening.
Interesting chat with the Arma 4 devs. A question was posed about the impact of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on the game’s development, which of course raises some very good points. I always find it interesting when the developers of military shooters describe their games as anti-war, but these guys have definitely put some thought into the subject.
Dune Spice Wars multiplayer update coming out later in June!
And Wartales is getting a co-operative update! This is becoming quite the running theme.
Shiro are also publishing two new indie titles, the first of which is sci-fi but underwater!
Wait, is this a BioShock Rapture city builder?
OK, Abyssals isn’t technically a Rapture building spin-off. Still looks like a treat for those of us obsessed with a certain underwater city, though.
Oh, here’s another existential crisis to enjoy.
Decarnation felt like an A24 horror movie trailer, but 8-bit.
That is a cute seagull OH WAIT NO IT ATE THE WORM
MORE SCI-FI! SCI-FI WITH A SEAGULL!
As someone who recently moved to the coast I can confirm that seagulls are surprisingly evil.
That worm absolutely decimated that seagull, wowza.
I Am Future is a cute post-apocalypse farming simulator due out sometime later this year. Think Animal Crossing meets Wall-E and try not to sob at how adorable that is, I guess.
And also with aggressive worm/seagull rivalries, maybe.
I can’t take another sci-fi existential crisis, I really can’t.
That Jurassic Park theme will never not give me chills! Oh, and also Jurassic World Evolution 2 has a new DLC out in just a couple of days.
Nothing like getting told that you’re nothing by a rogue AI at 9:30pm on a Sunday evening.
Can confirm SHODAN has already got into Hayden’s head over the course of a single trailer.
I may not have my colleague’s extreme youth but even I’m a bit young to remember the original System Shock, so I’m really looking forward to this remake!
Ew, why’d the host have to say “cram into your eyeballs” like that?
I’m so young and oblivious that I’ve never even seen a screenshot of System Shock, but I assumed it looked a little more modern than that. It’s safe to say that my system has indeed been shocked by the huge leap in this remake. Exciting!
Hey, I’ve just realised we’re halfway through the show already! Hope everyone has enough snacks left.
Battle royale trailers always seem so chaotic, completely neglecting the 30+ minutes you spend quietly running around in every match.
Sweet, an FMV game’s up next.
Rebecca says FMV = Full Motion Video, apparently.
OK, so Immortality looks a bit like Twin Peaks and a lot like the FMVs beloved of my ’90s childhood. Behind-the-scenes I’m giving young Hayden a potted history of what all of that meant.
I swear there is a fishing mini-game in every game we’ve seen at Keigh3! Why do people love fishing so much?
I really wish the host would stop talking about my eyeballs.
Nivalis lets you run a cyberpunk bar, but yeah you can also go fishing. I actually love when management games are used to tell a narrative, so many interesting customers sharing their stories. In this case, probably stories about how their consciousness got jacked into the net so that they could mindhack a local corporation to steal secret data packets about the environmental hazards facing the local fish.
Next up we have a top-down turn-based action game with visual novel elements, by the looks of things! For a second there I thought a character was named “Gruff Yakuza” but I’ve come to the rather disappointing conclusion that it was more of a description than a legal name.
OK, so Demon School is coming 2023. Colour me intrigued… like Monster Prom but less dating? I guess that’d be acceptable. I’d prefer it if we kept the dating as well, though.
I am turning off all of the lights and prepping the salt circle right now. Rebecca, can you bring the lamb’s blood?
Hayden, I’m a vegetarian. It’s got to be human blood or nothing, I’m afraid.
A comment made a million times by now, but Scorn has so much meat. Just endless chunks of flesh.
Interesting that Scorn has no dialogue and relies entirely on environmental storytelling. And while there is shooting, it’s not a shooter. These seem like really creative constraints to work within.
OH NO, I BROKE MY SALT CIRCLE! THE RITUAL IS RUINED!
Scorn is out just in time for Halloween, appropriately enough.
Moving onto Warhammer 40K: Space Marine 2, now. The devs are on to talk about the space marines you’ll play as in this game, which have bio-implants to improve their combat efficacy. I recently tried to get into painting Warhammer minis, but I’m still pretty shabby.
That chainsaw kill was VERY bloody, and they said you’ll get to rip and tear a lot. They specifically said rip and tear, which can only be a positive.
They keep saying that you can fight 1000+ Tyranids at once, and I will absolutely be counting the actual amount of Tyranids in Space Marine 2’s hordes when it launches.
Agent 64: Spies Never Die looks like the closest we’ll ever get to a PC port of Golden Eye 007. I actually love the cheek of working the reference to Nintendo 64 right into the title like that. Excited for this one!
Half Life Alyx: Levitation, Victoria 3, and Gloomwood are still to come! For now, though – Stormgate! This was previously shown just days ago at Geoff-Fest, so it might sound familiar.
“Not pay-to-win and no NFTs” is now an explicit selling point, apparently.
Like, don’t get me wrong, I’m glad that this game isn’t P2W and doesn’t have NFTs, but jeez…
It doesn’t make me more interested in the game inherently, but it definitely puts me at ease, at least.
The Stormgate devs aim to cultivate a thriving e-sports community at every level, from grassroots to pros. Maybe I’ll get involved, shall I get involved? I’ve never done an e-sport before. Actually, I’ve never done any sport before.
Laysara: Summit Kingdom looks quite lovely. Reminding me of old Caesar games I loved playing as a kid but with 2020s polish. And who doesn’t want their own mountain? It’s out in Q1 of 2023.
Frozen Flame is an open-world survival adventure that started off looking just like Valheim until it all got a bit more magical. The demo was just released!
That pause was so long. When push……………………………….. comes to shove.
Victoria 3 was one of the big announcements we’ve been looking forward to this evening. Paradox’s historical strategy franchise(s) are huge and sprawling and all weirdly interconnected, and they kind of fascinate me. The “grand tomorrow” is due out later this year.
Wait, were those clips from Faith?
Yesss! Faith: The Unholy Trinity. I have to assume this is a full trilogy release, which would in turn mean that Faith: Chapter III must be on its way?
This montage of Doom-likes with a metal music soundtrack was far too intense for 10pm on a Sunday. I need to turn the volume down a little, huh?
CUTE PUPPER!!!! The night has improved considerably!
Gloomwood is co-developed by David Szymanski, who our regular readers might recognise as a frequent collaborator with DreadXP and a personal indie favourite of mine. Retro survival horror at its finest. Coming to early access August 16th!
Norland is a medieval story generator with villagers that stab each other, drop dead in the streets from poison, behead their fellow villagers, and more. Very not sci-fi, very medieval.
Norland’s trailer also featured the most explicit sex scene I’ve witnessed so far in 2022, which was beyond unexpected.
Farthest Frontier is… The Oregon Trail from oop north?
Ahhhh, back to the safety of sci-fi adventures.
More sci-fi city building in Synergy, but it’s got a nice Heaven’s Vault sort of feel to the world, don’t you think?
That was Synergy, and it isn’t just any old sci-fi adventure. You’ll get to build a colony in this survival city-building, in which you’ll also have to fend off natural distasters and make the right choices to keep your people alive.
Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is finally up! This upcoming mod promises a 4-5 hour story expansion which should satisfy Half-Life fans before they enter another decade-long drought. Let’s not think about that though.
I like that this show has consistently acknowledged the place of modding in the PC gaming community. Several devs have mentioned their mod tools and now we’re getting a spotlight on one particularly ambitious and impressive fan mod.
Have you spent much time breaking the barriers of reality in VR, Rebecca?
Not as much as I’d like, I’m afraid, Hayden. My reliance on big chunky glasses makes it hard to pull off any outfit that includes a VR headset. How about you?
My chunky glasses also get in the way, but I’ve definitely spent my fair share of time in VR. I recently shared a story with the team that I feel deserves to be made public. One time when I was playing Phasmophobia in VR, I tried to throw the basketball in the lobby and smashed my hand through an overhead hanging glass lampshade. The wonky physics confused me and I lost all spacial awareness. It… hurt.
You’re not… exactly selling me on VR with that story, Hayden, given that I’m incredibly clumsy. I would literally pay for footage of the Phasmo basketball incident, though.
I did not tell my landlord at the time the truth behind that accident, by the way. It was too embarassing.
Every show should end with a blooper reel. This is the best part.
I wonder if we can convince vid bud Liam to add a blooper reel to every video he makes from now on?
Hey, that’s the end of the show! Two hours just flew by, didn’t they? Well… jogged at a pleasantly sustainable pace anyway. Hayden and I will be heading off soon, so I’d like to thank the chat for joining us tonight! I hope you all had fun.
Oh, and remember to break up the salt circles and wipe off the lamb blood from that earlier satanic ritual. Probably shouldn’t leave that set up much longer than necessary.